Well I thought I would start with a quick hello and then go from there..... I am a University Professor, a student finishing up my PhD. A stained glass artist in my spare time, dog and cat lover (hence the name), Practicing Buddhist and a person with fairly bad eating habits who gains weight when walking by someone else eating cheese and crackers

I decided that it was time to get my act together this past sunday..... I have done so before but I find that when I get my mind set I can tell..... So here I be. I am sick of shopping for clothes, I hate seeing myself in pictures and am basically not a happy camper. The biggest issue I have is that I have control issues and that can manifest in my diet... at this point my problem is not that I over eat but I eat the wrong things.... and have until recently had little time for exercise which is kinda ridiculous considering all the walking partners I have in this house. Another issue is always my husband who can and does eat my entire calorie alotment for the day for breakfast and worries about his weight when he is five pounds over his desired 6' 170 lbs.

So here I am working hard to not get on the scale every single day.....

I am joining a gym in a couple of weeks when I start getting paid again.....

summers are great but not working and not getting paid drives me nuts. The semester will be starting and that will keep me busier so here we go....

off to the races....

Welcome, 36! It sounds like you have made a good commitment and are ready to go. Check into the 40 something chat thread. You can get (and give) a lot of support there.

Love your user name!

Hi 36paws,

This place is wonderful. I'd also reccommend FitDay.com if you haven't tried it. These two websites are in the process of changing my life.

Best wishes on your journey and I hope to see you around!

Beth

36Paws ~ Wow, a professor ! (what do you teach? ) A stained glass artist ! A practicing Buddhist ! I'm very impressed, and want to be best friends with you !

I don't know how old you are but I can guess somewhere in your forties as you're around this forum a bit. (Thanks for all those posts on my thread yesterday ) Anyway, I have experienced the forties as a whole new bunch of challenges with appetite and weight gain. Since turning 40ish, I have hated to have my picture taken, hated the thought of being seen in shorts or sleeveless shirts, thus hated being social pretty much. My moniker "Hermit Girl" speaks volumes ! Truly, as I've gotten bigger, my world has gotten smaller. I'm ready too.

Opposite you, I believe I overeat to fill a hole inside (though mostly healthy food ) --- not very Buddhist, I know-- though I am not a practicing Buddhist, just feel aligned with much of it. I once thought I'd find a little statue of the Chinese FAT Buddha, to put on my kitchen counter, heh, heh.

Some things we have in common : My husband has always been thin , still is, his children and exwife are, and to make it intollerable, he is paranoid to gain 5 pounds. To me that is irksome, as I struggle with the idea that I've gained 50 since meeting him 14 years ago. Okay, I must let that go...

My gym is outside, I'm lucky to live in the backwoods, but like you I too have a walking partner, a really fit hiking buddy who I go out with nearly every morning , even again some afternoons, and hike up in the mountain woods we live in. She is a GermanShepherd , only 3, super fit and needs as much exercize as I can give her, and she's my True Companion. I am trying hard to focus for two hikes a day, but for now, making sure everymorning is even more important.

Well, like everybody says, it's nice to have each other's support here on 3FC, but I have to add that I get plenty of 'relating to' right here on the 40's-something sub-forum. We're all mostly in the same boat, and that cameraderie is so essential in my thinking. I have very few friends in my physical proximity to whom I can relate, as I'm a housewife in the Backwoods, but this forum introduces a world of positive feedback from women just like me !

Let's embrace ourselves together...

I am 42 so in my early forties..... and I teach Sociology at a University so I am finding this board quite interesting.... from a sociological standpoint..... and from a personal stand.....

I have been a Buddhist for 20 years.... becoming involved in my early twenties and now it is such a part of life that I can't imagine otherwise.... I was brought up Jewish and lived in Israel for several years and while I do consider myself to be culturally Jewish.... I follow Buddhism ....

Whats interesting is that you talk about being somewhat isolated due to being in the backwoods.... Where I live is rural.... but there are people around. I however, am isolated due to being Deaf (I use American Sign Language to communicate most often) so its different yet the same.....

We have seven dogs here.... I put pictures of them down in the general chat board under "pudgy pets" none of them are pudgy but thats where i put the pictures.... and thus the name... with 7 dogs, two cats, and a parrot.... its busy here..... and soemtimes I think that is half the problem.... I eat on the go all the time.... and tend to grab things.... I am a terrible cook..... and I don't do alot of exercise... I used to be much more active but an accident left me in a back brace for several years and unable to do much...even now my activities are limited by how much my back and neck hurts in the end.....

Whats interesting about Buddha is that they always show the Buddha as being fat but really he was about moderation.... and he would never have been fat.... so there is that.... and that is what I will try and follow from this point.....

Hermit we just have to stick together huh???
it is nice to be here
and the support is great and it will totally help as WE work to stay on track
S

36Paws~ THere are many statues of the Buddha as I understand, each representing different phases of his spiritual journey. There is the Indonesian Buddha which is very thin and meditative, the reclining 'death' buddha, etc. I don't know that much, but am amuzed by the Chinese fat Buddha.

Hi 36 paws! I love that name. I was wondering how it matched up with the avatar. At the moment, we have 8 paws at our house, all feline.

As a Buddhist, you should read "Eating Mindfully" (can't remember author... book has a green apple on the cover). It's written from a Buddhist perspective. I'm a UU, but we're all over the map theologically. I'm very Buddhist-friendly in my mindset, and work with the concept of mindfulness and living in the present. My problem is that my monkey-mind likes to swing from tree to tree and doesn't like to settle down AT ALL. Sigh...

I always understood that the fat Buddha represented joyful abundance, which is a little ironic considering Buddhism as a whole, but maybe it's a koan thing. LOL

I'm working on loving myself as I am... loving myself enough to change and care for myself.

Peace,
hopefuldreamer

The Fat laughing guy is actually a Chinese symbol and really not a buddha at all he is a hoy toi or something like that...... and you are right when you consider buddhism as a whole he doesn't align....

thanks for the book recommendation I am going to head out this weekend and pick up some books so will look for that one..... I can do a search and get the full name and such.....

I considered going to a UU here once because there are not Buddhist temples up here but decided against it.... being brought up Jewish and now a Buddhist I wasn't sure that it would be a good match for me on any level....but I have alot of respect for them....

36 paws actually includes Walter (a ragdoll kitten) that is not coming home until saturday..... I put pics of the other kids up in the general thread..... its definitely busy here

S

I love this thread because I dig 36paws and Hopefuldreamer ! I'm just like Hopefuldreamer, aligned with the principles of buddism, (my first major relationship was with a guy who studied Tebeten Buddism, so I learned by osmosis), but my mind is like a monkey. I consider myself actually more Existential, but not sure exactly why I decided that. Anyway, I need to get that "Mindful Eating" book. I am going to town today (something I only do about twice a week) and I will look at the bookstore for it. I also tend to collect cookbooks... heh, heh... maybe this one will be a welcome change.

ps. I only seem to do one pet at a time. I had a cat for 19 years, now a dog, and she's only 3. Back in the days of my 20's I had chickens for eggs, and angora rabbits, angora goat, and a sheep (for wool, I spin) , and of course, my cat was a youngun then, it was my little farm.

p.p.s Um, me the poor provincial girl asks : What is a " UU " ?

UU as I understood it to be Unitarian Universalist ...... and thank you I think your pretty cool yourself .....

I would love to have chickens..... I just adore them.... we have property out in NY state that we watn to move to and fill with chickens, goats and cattle but that is going to have to wait until I finish this damned PhD and hubby retires.... (he is much older than I)

oh well

36 paws was right. UU stands for Unitarian Universalist. If you google that, the main national site will come up and you can check us out. The cool thing about UUs is that we are such an eclectic bunch. I've met UU Buddhists, UU Quakers, UU Jews, UU Catholics, whatever... we are a very open minded, loving bunch.


I'd love to get chickens, too, but I can't see how I'd manage it. I have a friend with chickens, and we get eggs from her. She lives in the country and her chickens roam her yard. They have a custom made coop complete with a heat lamp for winter coziness.

hopefuldreamer

Oh, is there such a thing maybe as a UU Existentialist ?

I love chickens too, theyr'e seriously curious and sometimes even affectionate. I hate it when they get eaten by raccoons and preying wildlife so I've decided to not have them where we live, nor goats or sheep. Up here on our mountain, there's a mountain lion, and a lot of coyotes, and scads of foxes and raccoons, all which would be drawn to such a farm like a magnet. So I buy eggs.

Oh, absolutely. We've got humanists and atheists too...all together with the rest. The only thing we can't tolerate is intolerance.


My Amish guy once had an owl that got into his chicken coop. It must have looked like an all-you-can-eat buffet to the owl. Poor chickens nearly had a nervous breakdown. He fixed the coop, and they're happy again.

I know there are coyotes around my friend's house. She only lets them run loose during the day when there are people around. At night, they are locked up safe and sound. In the winter, they stay in their coop and enclosure much of the time, unless there's a a really nice day and no snow on the ground. Chickens, apparently, are afraid of the snow. Who knew?

hopefuldreamer

So fun reading about everyone's religion! I am learning a lot.

Hoping to get to know all of you a bit better. I am a bit of a hermit too, mainly because we still have 8 kiddos at home, (six are grown and on their own). We get out a lot as a family but on my own? Not so much.

-Susan